XBRL has some interesting and very useful features...which few people seem to know about or use. One of those features is the ability to add commentary and examples using the XBRL label linkbase or the XBRL references linkbase.

I created some demo commentary linkbases for US GAAP and IFRS a while back.

The following commentary linkbases and references linkbases build on those examples:

So what exactly is going on? Essentially, what I am showing is that if software vendors create their software correctly, you can pull resources directly into their software and expose those resources to users without the software vendors having to write a single line of code.

I will provide more information and maybe a video later on this topic.

Article originally appeared on Intelligent XBRL-based structured digital financial reporting using US GAAP and IFRS (http://xbrl.squarespace.com/).